


Tobiuo - My Roommate Is a Fish

by Chikita



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fishing, Awkward situations, Crack Treated Seriously, Fish, Gen, Hinata is an eternal buttmonkey in this, Hinata is in middle school, Humor, Kageyama is a literal fish, Memes, One-sided Hinata/Kiyoko!, Talking Animals, very open ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-14 15:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20603420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chikita/pseuds/Chikita
Summary: AU, where instead of volleyball, Shouyou is obessed with fishing. Life is going great for our little hero until he catches, or rather rescues a rare flying fish at the local pond in Miyagi. It doesn't take him long to notice, that there is something special about it. Read: The fish can talk, and it's more than a little rude. Tobiuo (Kageyama fish) is a thing in this universe, Hinata embarrasses himself multiple times and Natsu makes everything worse.





	1. An Unexpected Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> This is the stupidest thing I have ever written and I'm fairly proud of myself. Based on the fishing mechanic in Sims 4 and the Tobiuo Meme.
> 
> Read on Wattpad for the complete fish experience: https://www.wattpad.com/story/200101671-tobiuo-my-roommate-is-a-fish

Shouyou was a normal kid for the most part. He loved spending time with his friends and family, was always upbeat and energetic, and his grades in school were terrible. And yet, there was something different about him, something that, while harmless, made him seem like the odd one out in his circle of friends.

Shouyou’s best friends, Koji and Izumi knew about his strange hobby for years now. They didn’t get weirded out anymore when they visited their classmate’s room and were promptly greeted by several fish staring at them from their nicely decorated fish tanks.

Okay, Izumi still got a little creeped out by the poster of a giant anglerfish on the wall whenever they met for a study date, but he hadn’t been able to convince Shouyou to switch it out for something less intimidating yet. The boy loved his anglerfish poster. The rest of the room wasn’t any different. Books about fishing and maps pointing out the best places to do that in Miyagi littered the floor and half of his closet was reserved to store his multiple fishing rods.

Izumi found out the hard way, that there was no escaping the fish whenever he was at Shouyou’s house because even the fridge was cluttered with either photos of young Shouyou’s dozenth trip to the local aquarium with his family, or crudely drawn pictures of...you guessed right, _fish._

After talking to his little sister Natsu one afternoon, he knew that the little girl wasn’t all that creative with birthday presents, so she just went with the usual each year. For a seven-year-old, she wasn’t even that bad with crayons, even if the pictures all looked identical. Shouyou didn’t seem to mind, as long as there was a fish in there.

Of course, everyone had a hobby they were passionate about. Izumi’s was basketball even though he wasn’t particularly tall, Koji had been playing soccer since the day he’d learned how to walk and, well, was it _really _all that strange to be into fishing? It was a regular sport after all, even though Shouyou’s love for it was getting a bit excessive.

The only time they had seen their friend genuinely upset, was when they got enrolled in middle school together and found out, that Yukigaoka, _surprise,_ didn’t have a fishing club. Shouyou hadn’t been very upfront about his disappointment, but it had taken them countless nights of watching _Finding Nemo _and _Ponyo_ at his house, while eating ice-cream, to get him back to his usual, optimistic self.

\---

Of course, friends were supposed to support each other’s weird hobbies, and so the three of them found themselves hanging out at a pond in the local park on one of their off days from school. It was only fair after Shouyou had visited both of their latest matches to cheer them on, and even treated them to meat buns afterwards. The problem was just that, even though Shouyou had a wide array of interests that included his friend’s respective sports, Izumi’s and Koji’s interest in fishing was practically nonexistent.

“Shouyou, we’ve been here for hours now. Aren’t you tired yet?”, Izumi complained, looking up from the manga he was reading through for the sixth time already. He would’ve died of boredom if he hadn’t brought anything to keep himself busy, but he wasn’t going to offend Shouyou by telling him that his lifelong passion was boring. Even though it _was._ At least to him.

His older brother had told him once, that getting dragged on shopping trips by his girlfriend was terrible, but at least clothes were sort of nice to look at. Fish all looked the same. There was nothing interesting about them, other than the fact that you could make them into tasty food. Not to mention that Shouyou had barely caught anything that day, but that only seemed to motivate him even more.

“Oh, I’m not tired at all. I could do this _all day._ Don’t you want to stay a bit longer?”, he asked, glancing over at his friend with big puppy-dog eyes, as he reeled in his fishing rod, empty as it had been when he threw it out minutes ago, save for the missing bait on its hook. Izumi answered with a sigh. For some reason, that face always worked on him, but he could imagine tons of other, _way_ more fun things to do on a hot summer day than what they were doing right now.

They couldn't even go swimming because that would "disturb the water and scare away the fish", so they were left to rot in the heat of the afternoon while tons of mosquitoes buzzed around them, trying to eat them alive. Koji had counted twelve bites on his left arm a few minutes ago before he had walked off for a bathroom break..._again._ He either had a bladder infection or was so bored, that even _peeing_ was more exciting to him, than watching Shouyou fail at fishing. When Koji eventually returned, Izumi decided that enough was enough.

“Look, it’s not that I don’t _like_ fishing or anything,” he lied, instantly feeling bad when Shouyou’s smile made way for a light frown, “But, three hours is a bit too much, don’t you think? You didn’t even catch anything special, maybe you’ll have more luck another day. Koji and I really need to get home and do some...stuff.”

Koji next to him nodded in agreement, huffing as he scratched up his arm until it looked like he had been mauled by a wild animal. Well, mosquitos _were_ wild animals, but still.

“Um...okay, I’m only staying for another hour, but you can go home if you want. Thanks for sticking with me for so long,” Shouyou eventually gave in and shot both of them a warm smile. The fact that he wasn’t even mad only added to Izumi’s guilt, but he had to force himself to brush it off, otherwise he would probably spend the rest of the summer sitting at ponds listening to Shouyou go _ohh_ and _ahh _over every single puny fish he caught.

His tolerance for fish had its limits, and he wasn’t sure how much more he could take of it.

\---

“Shouyou’s a good guy, too good for this world probably,” Izumi said to Koji once they were out of earshot, “Do you think I’m a horrible person for wanting him to find a different hobby? You can be honest, I won’t mind.”

“No idea,” Koji answered, still scratching at his arm as he walked and looking up into the reddening sky, “It’s what makes him happy after all. I doubt he’ll get over his fish obsession on his own. Maybe once he has a girlfriend, who really hates fish or something. Guys change when they have girlfriends. Trust me, I’ve seen it happen first-hand,” Izumi grinned at his friend’s words because he knew _exactly_ what he meant.

“You think Shouyou’s gonna have a girlfriend in high school?”, he asked right after. For some reason, he couldn’t imagine Shouyou in a serious relationship with a girl, and he wasn’t even sure why “Or...maybe a boyfriend? Hey, maybe he ends up meeting one of those old fisher dudes you always see in the movies.” The mere thought made his skin crawl, and he regretted bringing it up in the first place. They were barely fifteen. _Eww._ Koji only started laughing.

“I don’t know about you, but if _our _Shouyou ever gets a boyfriend, I swear, it’s gonna be a fish,” he said and Izumi couldn’t help but crack up himself. The idea of Shouyou falling in love with a fish was just too ridiculous and thus, less squicky than the whole thing with the old man, so he allowed himself to join his friend’s laughter. After all, it wasn’t like a person could _actually _befriend a fish, let alone date one.

“Now, you’re taking it a bit too far. That sounds crazy,” he chuckled despite himself and Koji replied with a wide grin and a thumbs up.

Sure, Shouyou was passionate, maybe a be a bit _too _passionate about the things he liked, but that was just a part of his intense personality. It wasn’t like he had lost his mind or something.

\---

Two hours later and Shouyou was still where he had been five hours ago, still wearing his black and orange bucket hat, still clutching the fishing rod in his small hands and still waiting with the patience of a saint for something to bite. Two tiny fish he hadn't been able to identify yet were swimming in circles in one of the water buckets to his left, but otherwise, he had been rather unlucky today.

It wasn't like he wanted to cook the fish and eat them, _no,_ fish were friends, not food. He just wanted to take them home, put them in his room, maybe shoot a few photos for his pinboard and then release them back into the wild. Honestly, if it was his to decide, he would just keep all of those awesome little creatures and admire them all day. But then again, he'd made an agreement with his mother, who wasn't all that supportive of his fish collecting hobby. It was probably better to not push it and risk losing the rest of his fish.

Humming the tune of “10 Little Fishies” under his breath, Shouyou swayed his hips from side to side, getting restless after staying in one place for that long. His stomach was growling and the lack of action started to frustrate him, not to mention that he hadn’t been to the bathroom in hours.

As of now, his stubbornness was the only thing that kept him going. He just wanted to catch another fish, even if it was just a tiny one. He had a feeling that something great was going to happen today, and that his patience would be rewarded. He even felt it in his fingertips and toes and that had to mean something.

As if on cue, something started pulling on his fishing rod right at this moment, snapping him out of his thoughts and flooding his body with adrenaline. He jerked the rod back in the air to set the hook, almost tripping over his own feet in the process, but managed to get a hold of himself just when the fish started pulling even harder. He had it. Now he just had to pull it out of the water, but it was resisting, fighting him like an angry beast from the deepest pit of the ocean.

How freaking _cool_ was that?

“Ahh, I’m getting you, just you wait!”, Shouyou cried out, digging his heels into the ground and tightening his grip on the fishing rod until the knuckles of his hands turned white. He couldn’t let go. If he did that he was going to lose. He couldn’t let that happen. He was _not _going to lose to a fish. Another pull almost made him lose his balance. His hat dropped to the ground, but he kept looking straight at the water’s surface, his gaze as focused as ever as he kept spinning the reel.

Until he had it. _Finally. _Shouyou’s heart was pumping like crazy when he blinked a few times to take a good look at his capture, the beast that had fought him with so much ferocity. But when he did, he was met with nothing but disappointment.

A boot?_ Seriously?_

Grimacing, he picked up the half-rotten piece of trash and held it up to his face, tilting his head and inspecting it. It was heavy, probably because it was still filled up to the brim with murky water. _Who even has feet that big?_ That person should go find a doctor.

More frustrated than ever, Shouyou scrunched up his nose and was _just_ about to throw it back into the pond, when he remembered the fierce battle that thing had put on just now. That was...honestly quite impressive for an inanimate object. Maybe he should k-

A loud shriek escaped him when his vision blackened, as something literally _slapped him_ across the face the very next moment, something wet and slippery but so _powerful, _that it sent him flying and crashing to the ground below. The air was knocked out of him as his back hit the solid earth, and he groaned in response, a dull pain shooting through his body at the same time.

“Ouch!”, he whined but wasting no time to get back up, ignoring the ache in order to get ready for a fight. No matter who or _what _had attacked him just now, he was ready to defend himself, even if his knees were shaking in fear and he felt like he was going to wet himself any moment. It wouldn’t really make a difference since both the front of his shirt and pants were already soaked with water from the attack. But, when Shouyou looked straight ahead, there was nothing to see. Until he heard something, a high-pitched, scratchy voice.

“Dumbass!

_What._

It took him a while to figure out where the weird voice, that seemed to be _insulting_ him was even coming from. It couldn’t belong to an adult, but he had never heard a child sound like that either. Maybe it wasn’t human, but some kind of parrot that had broken out of its cage.

Every explanation he came up with ended up being more ridiculous than the other, and for a dreadful moment, he was actually scared for his life. But then the voice chimed in for a second time, louder and much clearer than before.

“Dumbass! Dumbass!”

Shouyou followed his instincts, that screamed at him to look down, where no voice like that ever had _any_ right to come from. And then he saw it. Next, to his dropped hat and fishing rod, there was a small blue and white thing thrashing around, flailing its little fins and yelling the same words over and over again. Shouyou didn’t have time to think about how that _fish_ ended up there, or why _the everloving fuck_ it was cursing him out, the poor animal was suffocating and in dire need of rescue.

His body reacted before his mind had a chance to catch up, and he grabbed the small fish, or rather _tried _to grab it, because the creature was struggling and lashing out, and now he was even more aware of what had been slapping him across the face just now, because it was doing it _again._

Thankfully, Shouyou had his guard up this time, and after having to deal with the fish’s violent aggression for a few more seconds, he finally managed to maneuver it into the water bucket to his left. The other two fish were probably getting the shock of their lives, but he wasn’t just going to throw that monstrous creature back into the pond.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Shouyou dropped to his knees next to the bucket, both to calm his racing pulse and to take a better look at the beast he had just tamed. His knees were still quivering, heart pounding against his ribcage and he was both thankful and upset, that his friends hadn’t been there to witness...whatever just happened. That would sure be a story to tell.

The fish was bigger than the other two, about 12 inches long and blue with a white underside, but the most astonishing thing about it were two wing-like fins on its back, that made it look like one of those flying fish he had read about in one of his books. But how did a fish, that lived in the ocean get all the way into a small pond in the middle of the countryside? That was already strange enough. Shouyou’s heart must have skipped a beat when he noticed something else. Something even _stranger._

Did the fish have a _human face?_

Okay. _Alright._ Terrified out of his wits, Shouyou crawled backwards from the bucket, hand clutching over the spot where his heart was beating so loud, that his ears were ringing. _Holy shit. _Something was wrong here. Fish weren’t supposed to have human faces. Well, they weren’t supposed to attack people either, but-

“Hey, dumbass!”

And they _definitely_ weren’t supposed to insult people, what the _hell? _Maybe his mom had been right when she’d told him to drink more water and get out of the sun to avoid a heat stroke, but could a mere heatstroke be a cause for hallucinations? A bit of dizziness and a headache, sure, he could handle that. But _this?_ Maybe he was sleeping or worse, in a coma after some horrible accident with his bike. Or maybe he was just really, _really_ confused. Either way, he had to get away from the pond before things would get even more freaky.

It didn’t take him long to collect all his belongings, including the bucket with the three fish he had caught. Maybe things would get better once he was at home, got something in his belly and some well-needed rest. It was good that the fishing bucket could be closed with a lid because he didn’t look forward to being attacked by the flying monster while riding his _bike. _He just needed to get home and then everything would be fine. He wasn’t losing his mind.

Shouyou swore, that he could still hear the damn fish yell at him back from the carrier.

_He wasn’t losing his mind, he definitely wasn’t losing his mind…_


	2. Shouyou, the Fish Whisperer

When Shouyou finally arrived at his house, every muscle in his body ached and he was more exhausted than he had ever been in his young life. He had been in a hurry to get over the mountain and could be lucky, that he hadn’t crashed into anything or _anyone _in his way.

“I’m home!”, he called after unlocking the door, and as always, Natsu came running towards him from the direction of the living room, and threw herself into his arms with a high-pitched giggle. Shouyou picked her up with ease and spun her around a few times, giggles morphing into loud laughter before Shouyou had to set her down again because she’d started pulling at his hair.

“Shouyou, where have you been?”, Natsu cheered, flailing her arms in a way that made her look like a baby bird flapping its wings, the long sleeves of her pajamas only adding to the image, “Did you go fishing again? Did you catch anything? I want a moonfish! And a shark!” Shouyou, though dizzy from fatigue, was about to explain to her why he couldn’t get her any of those, when suddenly, the voice he’d wanted to forget about, started tormenting him again.

“Dumbass! Hey, dumbass!”

Shouyou froze at the sound, and so did Natsu. For a few seconds, they stared at each other in silence and that was an extremely rare occurrence for the two kids. That alone must have alarmed their mother, who promptly arrived with a worried look on her face, eyes switching back and forth between them, before she turned them to the bucket on the floor. _Oh no_.

“Um, actually, I_ really _need to go to the bathroom, I’ll be right back!”, Shouyou blurted out, and it wasn’t even a lie. He'd needed to go for ages, but first, he had to hide that freaking bucket in his room, where neither Natsu nor his mother could be bothered by it. Natsu’s reaction just now had been obvious enough. Apparently, he was dealing with some supernatural forces here.

“Shouyouu! Are you _stupid?_ The bathroom’s downstairs. Are you gonna pee in your closet again?”, Natsu yelled at such a high volume, that the neighbors could probably hear it if they left their windows open. But then again, their neighbors were elderly people, who were both almost deaf. Shouyou still wished, Natsu would finally drop that old story for good. They couldn’t have a single family gathering without her bringing it up at the dinner table at least twice. He hadn’t sleepwalked in years, _damn it!_

Shouyou didn't have any more time to waste, and as soon as the bucket with the demon fish inside was stored in his room with the other fish, he went back downstairs to take care of some basic human needs he had neglected for far too long.

When Shouyou sat in the dining room with his family, he barely managed to eat half of the food on his plate, despite his stomach feeling akin to a black hole. For some reason, neither his mother nor his sister mentioned anything about the cursing fish, as if they had just forgotten about it altogether.

He couldn't help but squirm on the spot, chewing down the rest of the noodles he intended to eat, so he wouldn’t starve overnight. His hands were trembling, and he almost ended up stabbing Natsu with his chopsticks a few times, his insides burning with anticipation for what awaited him in his room. He couldn't get up fast enough, dropping his used plate into the sink before storming out of the room and up the stairs again. It was nothing short of a miracle, that he didn't end up slipping and falling to his death as a punishment for not doing his dishes.

**\---**

When he opened the door to his room and crept closer and closer to the bucket on the floor, Shouyou was overcome with newfound anxiety, pulse racing, hands sweating, and if he hadn't just gone to the bathroom before dinner, he would have to make a run for it now. Instead, he slowly lifted the lid of the bucket, peering inside and praying, that the creature wouldn't jump in his face again.

_Huh, weird._

Instead of yelling, slapping him or doing anything else, that a fish wasn't supposed to do, the creature was idly drifting in the water and for a moment, Shouyou feared that it had died. But then he remembered that dead fish always floated upside down, and figured, that it might just be sleeping. Letting out a breath he had been holding right after he’d stepped into the room, Shouyou decided to set up a new fish tank for the demon creature, so it wouldn't end up attacking, or worse, _eating_ one of the other fish.

"Hey dumbass!", the voice made him jump again, just as he was about to clean one of the smaller tanks, almost causing him to drop the heavy container onto his feet. Usually, fish were known to be silent creatures, so he wasn’t used to one that actually made noise.

Now, that his mind was clearer than it had been down at the pond, where he had been filled to the brim with adrenaline, his rational side took over. Maybe he was just imagining that whole “dumbass” thing, and it was a regular noise fish of that species made, like a mating call or something weird like that. Wait, did fish even _have_ mating calls?

“Hey, you really suck at fishing!”

_Huh??_

With a loud gasp, Shouyou spun around on his heel, almost giving himself a whiplash with how quickly he turned his head. His eyes caught those of the fish in the bucket, and he _swore,_ the thing was _staring_ at him, still wearing that weird human-shaped face with its upper lip sticking out in something akin to a pout. If this had been some kind of anime or video game, he would almost find it cute, but this was the real world. And there was a difference between a fish making weird noises and a fish talking to him in _complete sentences._ Okay, maybe he _was _losing his mind after all.

“Okay, you are _not_ talking to me. Fish can’t talk, you get that?”, he heard himself say in a squeaky voice, as he took a few steps backwards until he was practically pressed up against the wall, pointing an accusing finger at the creature in the bucket.

“Yeah, no shit, of course, I’m talking to you, dumbass! I just didn’t expect you to answer,” the fish said, and at this point, Shouyou was close to throwing either the fish bucket or himself out of the window. What was that, some kind of Ghibli movie? Tamagotchi? _Pokemon??_ Did he evolve into some kind of fish whisperer overnight? His head was spinning, stomach clenching with anxiety and his face must have been white as chalk. If either of his family members saw him like this right now, they would probably call an ambulance, and with_ a right._

“Hey, calm down!”, the creature said, but it only succeeded in making Shouyou’s heart beat even faster, “I’m not going to jump you again. I only did that because I panicked after I got stuck in that boot. I don’t just attack people all the time, stupid!” How a freaking _fish_ could miss the point like that was honestly astonishing.

“You’re _talking!_ You...Y-You do realize, that this is super weird, right? _Right?”,_ Shouyou asked breathless, still with his back to the wall, fingers clawing at the wallpaper to deal with his nervosity in some way.

“Hey, this is a first time for me, too. You’re the first human who can actually understand what I’m saying. But unlike you, I’m not flipping my shit about it.” Shouyou grimaced as his anxiety started to get overtaken by annoyance at the way the creature was speaking to him. That was the rudest fish he had ever met, not a realization he had ever expected to have, but a realization nonetheless.

“Okay, so I’m either dreaming, or I just hit my head a bit too hard when I fell back then. I might have a concussion,” Shouyou muttered, more to himself than to the fish, even if he didn’t believe any of his own words. He didn’t know all that much about concussions, but he was pretty sure they didn’t cause people to imagine being told off by a fish. And the whole situation felt way too real to just be a dream.

“No, you don’t, you’re just clumsy as fuck. No wonder you caught almost nothing today. You suck ass!” the fish badmouthed him again and Shouyou, offended by the harsh words, kinda wanted to wring its neck until he remembered, that fish didn’t really have necks.

With a huff, he removed himself from the wall and slumped down on his bed, setting the bucket on his nightstand, so he could look into the fish’s weird face. He was still freaking out about the whole thing, hands shaking like crazy, but he had enough common sense to realize, that he couldn’t keep a sentient, talking fish as a pet like all the others in his room. That was messed up.

“Look, I have no idea why you can talk, or why I can understand you, and I never thought I would _ever _get into a situation like that, but…”, he took a deep, shuddering breath, “If you’re _that_ angry with me, I’ll get you back to the pond tomorrow. You don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to.” Shouyou _did_ feel a bit bad about giving up such a rare, freaky-looking fish, especially after he had fought so hard to get it, but he couldn’t bring himself to keep a fish that obviously hated his guts.

Oh._ Oh no. _

His heart sunk at the sudden realization, causing his shoulders to tense up, hands clenching into fists over his thighs. Maybe the other fish in his room hated him just as much, and he didn’t even realize it until now, even though he always tried his best to take good care of them. Maybe it wasn’t _enough? _Maybe what he was doing was some kind of animal abuse?

_Holy shit. All of his pets hated him._

\---

The fish fell silent after that, probably agreeing with everything he’d just said. Shouyou was still caught up in his feelings of guilt minutes later, doubts he wasn’t used to having when suddenly, a gentle knock on the wooden door to his room brought him back to reality. Before he could react, Natsu stood in the crack of the door, barefoot and still clad in her pink pajamas, clutching a lion plushie in one arm and rubbing her eyes with the other.

“Shouyou, are you okay? I did the dishes for you because you forgot again. I think mom didn’t even notice it was your turn,” she said, and Shouyou felt his heart swell at her words, a smile making its way onto his face. His sister could get on his nerves sometimes as all younger siblings did, but deep down she was a very sweet girl, even taking over his chores when he couldn’t do them for some reason.

“That means you owe me,” she said then, lazily pointing a tiny finger at his face, “Can you get me something from the candy store?” Shouyou groaned but nodded along as she started listing all the sweets her mother would never buy for her because in her opinion, they caused people’s teeth to fall out. But hey, at least Shouyou didn’t get in trouble for slacking off, and Natsu still had most of her baby teeth anyway.

“Alright, I’ll go buy something after school tomorrow, okay?” he gave in, not surprised at all when Natsu started squealing, jumping up and down in excitement, before climbing up into his bed to wrap her arms around his middle, her usual way of thanking him. Shouyou hummed in content as he returned the hug, crushing the worn-out teddy plushie between their bodies. Even if all the creatures in the world hated him, at least his little sister would never do that.

Even if he had to keep bribing her with food until the end of time.

“Are you sad?”, Natsu’s muffled voice reached his ears from where she was pressing her face against his chest. Shouyou shook his head, told her, that he was just a little tired from roaming the town all day on his bike, but skipped the part with the weird fish attack. He didn’t want to give her nightmares or risk her tell everyone in school, that her brother wrestled with dangerous sea creatures on a daily basis.

“Hm...okay,” she hummed eventually, let go of him and scooted off the bed to get back on her feet, “Goodnight, Shouyou, and don’t forget about the melon gummy.”

“As if I would ever forget about the melon gummy," Shouyou replied, rolling his eyes, but smiling all the same, “Goodnight to you, too. Don't forget to brush your teeth, you'll get cavities from all that sugar.” He actually laughed when Natsu stuck out her tongue at him in response, before scurrying out of the room with her plushie.

With Natsu gone, Shouyou was left alone with his thoughts again, his smile faltering in an instant. He took another glance at the bucket, and felt like the whole drama about the fish's trash-talking had been some weird kind of fever dream, but he was pretty sure, that it couldn’t be. You couldn’t make up stories like that.

After staring holes into the air for a few more minutes, and listening to the gentle watery noises of the surrounding fish tanks, Shouyou stood up to take a quick shower and change into his pajamas. School was about to start again the next morning, and he wanted to be well-rested if only to not get detention for falling asleep in math class for the third time in a row.

When Shouyou was back in bed, freshly showered and smelling like apple-flavored shampoo, he almost fell asleep right when his head hit the pillows. Unsurprisingly, his body and mind were equally exhausted from all the confusing things that had happened to him on this fateful day. He thought he heard the talking demon fish blubber something in his direction, but this time he wasn’t listening. In the end, it probably just wanted to insult him again, and he wasn’t having any of that.


	3. Of Crushes and Crashes

The next time Shouyou opened his eyes his room was flooded with sunlight coming in from outside. He could feel a crick in his neck and a slight headache forming behind his eyes, but nothing too serious. It was always hard to get used to getting up early for school again, especially after he’d spent most of the last nights watching fishing videos on his laptop or studying a particularly interesting specimen in his room.

Speaking of interesting specimens, he _still_ had to come up with a name for his new striped peacock eel. Earl? Draco? Rolling Thunder? Eel mac Eelface? _Nah._ Too uncreative. Maybe he should just go with Fluffy as Natsu had suggested. Fluffy sounded good. Or what about-

“Hey, you _lazy butt,_ get up already!”

Shouyou laid still for a few seconds where he was still hazy from sleep before he realized, that the strange voice he’d just heard, didn’t match any of the voices he recognized from memory. Well, except for that one weird dream he had with the talking fish and the-

_Wait. _

One glance to the nightstand on his left was enough for Shouyou to start screaming at the top of his lungs, probably breaking a few glasses in the house as he leaped out of bed with his legs getting tangled up in his blanket. He tripped over his feet, reflexively grabbing the first thing he could get a hold of, but that didn’t stop him from crashing to the floor face first. The sound of feet thundering up the stairs reached his ears, a sharp pain shooting through his knees at the same time, and suddenly, everything around him felt cold and..._wet?_

Shouyou looked up from where he was kneeling on the floor, eyes widening as he realized what had happened and where the sudden wetness came from, unsure if he should be relieved or horrified. His fishing bucket was tipped over, its former contents emptying out on the floor, and his whole room was flooded in no time. There was dirty pond water everywhere, soaking his bedsheet and through his pajamas and- _oh shit,_ what was that fish doing there?

_That had to be some kind of déjà-vu._

This time, however, he reacted more quickly than he did in his “dream”, managing to get the fish from the floor up into the only empty tank in the room without breaking anything. He didn’t even have a single moment to catch his breath before the door to his room was ripped open in a violent manner.

“Shouyou! You’re way too loud!”, Natsu, ironically, yelled into the room, squeaking when the murky water reached her bare feet. Her mother followed right after her and gasped for breath at the sight of her son standing in a pool of water, completely soaked from head to toe.

“Um, I guess, I had a bit of an accident,” Shouyou said without thinking, his skin instantly starting to itch from the heat that crept up his neck. Bad wording. _Bad. _He could almost hear that demon fish from his dream snickering at his misery, and figured, that if there was some kind of contest for “worst possible mornings”, he would win it in a heartbeat. It couldn’t really get worse than that.

\---

Fortunately, a mop and a few towels were enough to clean up the mess and about twenty minutes later, everything was more or less back to normal. Of course, Shouyou would be late to school, but a few minutes more wouldn’t really make a difference. His mother was out of the house to escort Natsu to school, so he was alone for a while. He would’ve left already, but for some reason, his school uniform was nowhere to be found.

“That’s all your fault, you stupid fish!”, Shouyou lashed out at the thing, that was eyeing and quite obviously judging him from inside his new fish tank, “If you hadn’t scared me to death, I wouldn’t have to be so late.” Shouyou was past the point of being intimidated by the animal, even though it had a creepy face and an even creepier voice. Right now, it was acting more like an annoying roommate than a pet or some actual demonic creature.

“How is this my fault? I didn’t tell you to tip that bucket over. You were the one who did it. Hell, you almost killed _me,_ dumbass!”, the fish yelled back, and before they knew it, a full-blown screaming fight had evolved between the two of them, accusations and curse words flying left and right. An innocent bystander would maybe assume a fight between siblings after one had eaten the other’s snack or two delinquents who wanted to shoot one another. Not a huge difference between the two.

But no one, absolutely _no one_ would expect one of the parties to be a talking_ fish._

\---

A few minutes later, Shouyou was finally on his way to school, pedaling up the mountain, his unwashed school uniform stuffed into the bag strapped to his bike’s carrier. The sound of birds singing and the familiar smell of the crisp morning air soothed his nerves and lifted his mood, but he was still confused to the moon and back. How was he going to explain to his friends, that a fish he'd caught at the pond was _talking_ to him, without them suggesting a trip to the nearest mental asylum?

Maybe he shouldn't tell them after all and just try to push the incident to the back of his mind. Sure Koji and Izumi were his friends and he trusted them to not tell anyone who could make fun of him, but he also didn't want them to question his sanity, and knowing them, they _were_ going to question it.

\---

The school day went by surprisingly fast. Luckily, Shouyou didn't get in too much trouble for being late, managed to stay awake for the entirety of math _and_ literature class, and whenever someone asked what had happened or why his uniform looked as if he had pulled it out of a dumpster, he just told them he had overslept. It wasn't a lie, so he didn't have to feel bad about deceiving people.

With the sound of the bell ringing for the last time this day, finally ending one of the most boring classes of the week, Shouyou leaped up from his chair, slung his bag over his shoulder and skipped over to his friends.

"Hey, I'm going to the candy store today. You’re coming too?", he asked, smiling and already bouncing on the balls of his feet. When he wasn’t fishing or doing something even half as exciting, sitting down for too long always made him feel restless and fidgety.

"Nah, Izumi has basketball practice and my mom needs me at home. You know, babysitting and stuff,“ Koji answered, scrunching up his face in displeasure, “Be thankful, that _your _sister’s out of that age. The last time I babysat Yuki, she bit my finger. Three times. That kid’s a monster. I bet she’s possessed.” Izumi chuckled beside him and Koji replied with a low grumble. The term “monster” made Shouyou jump a little, but he brushed it off with another smile, said goodbye to his friends and the rest of his classmates, and made his way to the store.

\---

Once he entered the small building, the smell of strawberry flavor and cookies rose up to his nose and he took a deep breath, almost feeling like he could _inhale_ all the sweets that were being sold here. No wonder Natsu liked the store that much.

After checking out a few shelves, he loaded his arm with all kinds of sweet, sugary stuff, including the things his sister liked, but also something for himself. Coconut rolls, choco chip cookies, fruity bubblegum...it was hard to pick only a few articles when everything in Shouyou’s sight made his mouth water.

Eventually, he managed to track down all the things he had intended to buy in the first place, except for one thing...the melon gummy. The shelf, where the small plastic bags were usually stored was empty as if some melon-obsessed junkie had been raiding the store just before anyone else had a chance. Shouyou stood in front of the shelf, shifting from foot to foot as he contemplated his options. Melon gummies were his sister’s favorite by a large margin, and she’d be disappointed and possibly offended if he came back home with all kinds of stuff for himself, but no melon gummies.

Balancing all the bags and small boxes on his arms, Shouyou staggered to the checkout and dropped everything he was holding onto the conveyor belt, taking a moment to catch his breath, before greeting the middle-aged woman behind the counter.

“Shouyou, what a surprise!”, the woman, Watanabe-san, who had known both him and his sister since they were in elementary school, smiled back at him and tilted her head to take a better look at her regular customer, “Haven’t seen you in a while. You’ve...grown a little since the last time we’ve met.”

“Woah, are you serious?”, Shouyou gasped, eyes lighting up like firecrackers as he slammed his hands on the counter, leaning forward before snapping himself out of his zeal with a shake of his head, “Anyway, I wanted to buy some melon gummies for Natsu. There weren’t any on the shelf, but she likes them a lot, and I kinda owe her something, so…”

“Alright, I got it, darling,” Watanabe-san said with the voice of an angel, “I can go check if I have some left in the storage room, but don’t hold your breath. If they’re out of stock, I’ll have to make an order first.”

She winked at him and walked off to the door at the back of the room, while Shouyou waited for her at the counter. It took him a great deal of self-control to not start ripping up any of the packages in front of him, that he hadn’t even paid for yet. They just smelled _way_ too good. To distract himself from the temptation, he let his eyes wander around the room.

Everything still looked the way it did at his last visit, and that had been a few months ago since he rarely had time to come here. It was still the same small, homely shop with Watanabe-san as its only owner. Nothing had changed, except for…

Just then, Shouyou’s eyes fell upon a small bowl of water on a table next to the counter, and as if someone had pressed a button, his heart rate accelerated. Shoving some of the boxed chocolate aside, he tried to get a better look at what was there, and _lo and behold,_ inside the bowl was a tiny goldfish, swimming in circles and blowing even tinier bubbles.

_How cool!_

Aside from adoration, Shouyou’s heart filled up with concern for the small creature. Watanabe-san probably didn’t know about proper fish care, and he wasn’t bold enough to call her out on it, but bowls like that weren’t exactly appropriate containers to keep fish in. The poor thing must be so lonely and bored all day.

But hey, maybe the fish itself had a different opinion on the matter. It was at this point, that he remembered everything that had happened up until this morning. Didn’t that weird demon fish tell him, that he was the only one who could understand its language?

Ignoring the last remaining bit of his common sense, Shouyou raised his right hand and lightly knocked at the glass with the joint of his index finger, careful to not startle the fish.

“Hey, um...I know I’m a stranger to you, but...c-can I ask you a few questions?” Oh no, he was getting nervous around a fish. A _goldfish _too. But maybe, _hopefully, _that docile-looking creature wouldn’t be as foul-mouthed as the human-faced monster in his own room. Well, if it decided to answer because as of now, it was turning its tail fin at him. This wasn’t working. He had to try something else.

“I-If you don’t want to talk to me, it’s fine, I’m not judging any-uh...fish. But, I _really _need to know if you can understand what I’m saying. This is like, super important. _Oh, wait,_ I’ve got an idea! You can wink at me with your fins, right? Right fin for yes, and left fin for no,” Shouyou said, trying to speak as slowly as possible as if speaking to an old, hearing-impaired person, “Can. You. Hear. Me?”

“Hinata-kun? What are you doing there?”

Shouyou froze in his tracks, back going ramrod-straight as he lived through another one of those borderline heart attacks. The voice had come from behind him, so it had to be another customer. And said customer had just caught him trying to initiate an idle chat with a goldfish. What the hell had he been _thinking? _Of course, doing something like this in public would make him look like a lunatic. Stupid, stupid, _stupid._

With his face feeling like someone had dipped his whole head in hot sauce, Shouyou turned around to apologize, and reassure the other person, that there wasn’t anything wrong with his brain, even though he found it hard to believe that himself. When he looked up, however, the burning in his cheeks ebbed up instantly. Instead, he could literally _feel_ all the color drain from his face.

Before him stood, in all of her glory, Kiyoko Shimizu, a second-year student from Karasuno high school, and quite possibly the cutest, prettiest girl in all of Japan, maybe even the world. She was a cousin of one of his classmates, and he’d been crushing on her since the day they'd met, even though they had never even talked to each other before.

And _now,_ when the _opportunity_ to speak to her for the first time opened up, she just _had_ to run into him while he was having a one-sided conversation with a goldfish in a candy store, surrounded by childish-looking candy boxes he intended to buy. Most of them for himself. To top it all off, he hadn't even brushed his hair before leaving the house this morning and was wearing an unwashed, unironed school uniform, that probably smelled like dirty fish water.

The universe really had a strange sense of humor.

“Uhh...h-hi, Kiyoko-san, how are you-,” he squeaked out, promptly choking on his own saliva. Coughing violently, he clutched his stomach and doubled over, as he feared he was actually going to die right there on the spot, in the middle of a candy store, or at least faint from the lack of air in his lungs. Maybe he should’ve been grateful for that. It was quicker than dying from embarrassment.

“Are you okay?”, Kiyoko asked in a monotone, but incredibly soft voice, even softer than he had ever imagined her's to sound like and placed a hand on his shoulder. That only made it worse.

“Yeah! I-I'm fine!”, Shouyou croaked out weakly, tears forming in his eyes as he gasped for breath. If he wanted to save the last remnants of his dignity, he really needed to come up with a good excuse for that whole fish incident. That was when the panic-riddled part of his brain took over and his mouth opened again before he had a chance to stop himself.

“I-I was just rehearsing my role for our new school play next week. It's...um, a fairy tale, _yeah! _The Little Mermaid! Our teacher said, I'm super talented, so he offered me the lead role. You know, there’s a lot of speaking time, and the text is super hard to memorize, and-” Shouyou didn't even notice his mistake until Kiyoko's eyes grew wide all of sudden, and once he got it, his heart dropped to the bottom of his stomach.

“You're playing the mermaid?”, she asked dryly, and at this point, Shouyou wanted nothing but for the ocean to come crashing down on him, and instantly kill him on the spot. At the same time, as if to save him from sprouting even more nonsense, Watanabe-san came strolling back from the storage room, waving a bag of melon gummies in the air with a self-satisfied grin. The woman seemed to be blissfully unaware of what had to be one of the most embarrassing conversations in human history.

“Uhh, it was nice meeting you here, but I _really_ need to get going, and um,” Shouyou turned towards a worried-looking Watanabe-san, “Thanks so much for the melon gummy! You can keep the change and Merry Christmas!” He pulled a 1000 Yen bill out of his purse and slapped it onto the counter, stuffed as many candy packages as he could fit into his school bag and dashed out of the store, not looking back even once.

“Good luck with your school play,” he heard Kiyoko's voice over the blood rushing in his ears before he was too far gone. All he wanted now, was to ride home and hole up in his room for the rest of the evening. Maybe he would even manage to break his speed record from yesterday.


	4. A New Challenge

The first thing Shouyou did when he came home after the Kiyoko disaster, was run upstairs to his room, throw himself, face-down, on his bed and scream into one of the pillows. After doing that for about a minute, he felt a little better, but he still didn’t get what kind of crimes he had committed to deserve such a cruel fate. Okay, he slacked off in class on a regular basis and sometimes forgot about his chores, but other than that, he hadn’t done nearly enough to incur the wrath of some angry, mythical being.

“What the hell’s wrong with you this time, dumbass? Are you mentally unstable?”, the voice of the demon fish echoed through the room, and when Shouyou looked up at the tank, the fish had its dumb round face pressed up against the glass, frowning and doing that thing again, where its upper lip was sticking out.

“Shut up, I just made a fool out of myself in front of my crush, okay? Keep your fins to yourself, I don’t need you rubbing it in!” Shouyou snapped back before going back to hide his face in his pillow, wondering why exactly he was telling a _fish_ about his nonexisting love life.

“So?”, the creature replied, tactful as ever, “You’re always doing that, why are you freaking out about it now? I thought making a fool out of yourself was some weird human thing.” Shouyou rolled over onto his back with a groan, sat up and pulled his knees up to his chest, curling into a tight ball.

“You wouldn’t get it. You’re just a strange-looking fish with a creepy face, who’s still talking to me for some messed up reason. What do you know?” Shouyou wasn’t in the mood to try and figure out the hows and whys of the situation, and he didn’t feel like going back to the pond either. Maybe tomorrow. Even then, he still felt conflicted, his stomach twisting whenever he thought about releasing the fish, even though the cursed thing had brought nothing but bad luck into their house.

Thanks to it, Kiyoko-san would probably never take him serious again. Maybe it was for the best, so Shouyou could get over his “hopeless crush”, as Koji had called it one day. As far as he knew, Kiyoko was super popular and always got tons of chocolate from all the boys on Valentine's day. Girls like her were probably more attracted to tall high school students with broad shoulders and muscular arms, not scrawny middle schoolers with messy hair and more fish tanks than brain cells.

_Wait, was that how being lovesick felt like?_

“Hey!”, the fish called out to him after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence between them, “What do you mean by “You wouldn’t get it? Are you messing with me?” Shouyou’s ears perked up at the hint of insecurity in the other’s voice, the first time he’d heard anything like that coming from the demon fish, who insulted him whenever he got the chance. Looking at its face now, it was still wearing the same expression, but there was a strange sadness in its eyes.

It was kind of ridiculous. Like everything, that had happened since he’d pulled that boot out of the water.

“You wouldn’t get it, because you’re a _fish,_” Shouyou replied, “Even if you’re not really acting like it.” He wasn’t lying. Whenever the animal talked to him, his insides tightened a little with how _weird_ it was. He didn’t mind having fish in his room. He also didn’t mind chatting with people. But chatting with a talking fish was a bit too high on his scale of weirdness.

“Would it make a difference to you, if I wasn’t a fish? Or if I didn’t look like one?”, the creature asked as if he had been reading Shouyou’s mind, making a shiver run down his spine with how accurate its guesses were. Was he _that_ easy to read?_ Creepy. _

“Well, yeah, of course, that would make a difference,” Shouyou said, scratching his neck, unsure about what the creature was getting on about. He had a strange feeling about this. But when he expected the fish to do or at least say something, there was nothing, just like the night before.

It really was a weird situation to be in. If Shouyou had been able to talk to _all _fish instead of just one, it would’ve been easier to accept, still strange, but at least then he could be sure, that he had some kind of superpower.

“Did I...offend you or something? I’m sorry if I did,” Shouyou asked after not getting an answer for a while. It was absurd because _he_ wasn’t the one with the potty mouth here. But still, the fish was sentient and what he had just told him probably came off as...racist? Speciest? Discriminating against unconventional life forms?

“You didn’t offend me, dumbass.”

“Okay,” Shouyou replied with a relieved sigh, “I guess, it’s not your fault you look the way you do. But, could you maybe stop calling me dumbass already? I don’t know where you got that from, but it’s super rude.”

“It fits you.”, the fish said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, “We all do that when we notice something unusual about each other. That’s how we get our names. And the first thing I’ve noticed about you was that you were a dumbass.”

_Yeah,_ thanks a lot.

“Okay, maybe it’s a part of fish culture or something, I dunno. But, it’s definitely not a part of ours. And, I bet, you’re _way _more of a dumbass than I am, anyway,” Shouyou said, sat up straight and crossed his arms over his chest, sticking his own lip out in a deliberate pout. The fish shot him a death glare, but this time, Shouyou refused to back down and their little disagreement almost ended in a staring contest. But staring contests with fish were a bad idea in general.

“Whatever, just call me Shouyou...or Hinata if you like that one more, but all my friends call me Shouyou, so I’d prefer you to call me that.” Never in all of his life had he thought, that he would offer a fish to call him by his first name, but he was doing it. Stranger things had happened today.

“Friends?”, he heard the fish ask in a doubtful voice, “Wait, we’re not friends. We can’t be friends.”

“Who said that? Don’t get me wrong, I still think you’re super rude and weird, especially for a fish, but...for the time being, I wouldn’t mind being on more...friendly terms with you. At least until I’ll get you back to your pond. We’re sharing the same space right now, so we kinda _have_ to get along.”

It wasn't like they could keep screaming at each other, and get into fights every morning until then. Natsu would freak out and his mother would probably kill him at one point or another.

“Okay,” Shouyou had expected the other to put up a bit more resistance, but he didn't mind having it not talk, or blubber back at him for once. Though, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, the banter with the talking fish, who might just be his roommate at that point, had been a welcome distraction from his fretting over Kiyoko-san.

“So...what’s _your _name?”, he asked to break the ice and lessen the awkwardness of the situation, “I’ve told you mine, and I don’t want to keep calling you monster or demon fish, even if it fits your personality. Do you even _have_ a name?” He was met with silence.

“I do, but...I would rather not tell. My real name is embarrassing as fuck and I hate it,”, the fish said after a few seconds of hesitation, surprising Shouyou a little. Could fish even feel something akin to embarrassment? Could they blush? His books never said anything about that. A blushing fish sounded weird, but also strangely cute. Shouyou would kill to know what its actual name was.

“Just call me Tobiuo or something, that’s my species’ name. You don’t need to know anything else."

“Tobiuo,” Shouyou repeated with a grin, the name rolling off his tongue with surprising ease, “Nice one, sounds just like a human name.” He'd half expected the fish to have some kind of fantasy name, that he wouldn't be able to pronounce. After all, his language skills weren't exactly the best. But this was fine. It felt nice to finally have a normal conversation with Tobiuo, as normal as a conversation with a talking fish could be.

\---

The rest of the evening thankfully didn't end up being as stressful as the one before. Shouyou took care of his fish, cleaned their tanks, fed them some special branded fish food and checked the water temperature and filters a few times to make sure that every single fish in his room was as comfortable as possible. He could feel Tobiuo’s eyes on him as he did so, and every time he did something “wrong”, he would throw a snarky comment in his direction, but Shouyou was quick on the comeback, not wanting to be outsmarted by the fish.

For some reason, there was a strange sense of familiarity between the two of them, and even though Shouyou had decided to not question it to save himself the resulting stomach aches, he still couldn’t really accept, that this was his life now.

When he had his back turned to him, it felt almost as if Tobiuo was a regular guy, the brother he never had, an annoying cousin, or just some weirdo who decided to live in his room, because it was cheaper than renting an apartment. And every time Shouyou turned around to look into the fish tank, he remembered that this wasn’t normal. _Tobiuo_ wasn’t normal. He wasn’t a normal human being, but he wasn’t a normal fish either. Just thinking about it made his head hurt.

Speaking of hurt, apparently, the universe wasn’t done with Shouyou for today. It was already past nine when he decided to get up on a stool to check the tank on one of the upper shelves, the tank of Licky, a funny looking Ancistrus catfish. His uncle had bought him from the local pet shop years ago because it reminded him of Shouyou as a toddler, licking windows and all that.

Shouyou soon realized that he should’ve moved the stool a little farther away from the door, but once he did, it was already too late.

“Shouyouu! Did you get the melon gummies?”, a high-pitched, girly voice reached his ears, as Natsu, the little troublemaker, barged into the room, successfully knocking over the stool with Shouyou on top of it. With how often he crashed to the floor, it was a miracle, that he hadn’t broken any bones yet. Groaning at the dull pain in his rump, Shouyou was about to heave himself up to lecture his sister about not running into his room without knocking first, when the fish was the first “person” to speak up.

“Shouyou, you dumbass! Why did you move that thing so close to the door, are you stupid? You could’ve avoided that,” Tobiuo yelled at him from his tank before Shouyou even had a chance to get back on his feet.

“Oh, thanks for the late advice, you overpriced sushi roll! I would like to see _you _get up on a stool, you don’t even have legs!”, Shouyou snapped back, before he got his third borderline heart attack that day, and figured, that he probably wouldn’t make it into his sixties if he kept that up. Natsu stood there with a blank expression on her face, jaw dropped and metaphorical question marks dancing around her head.

_Oh no,_ Shouyou thought with horror. She must’ve heard the fish scold him first, and now she was probably terrified out of her mind like _anyone_ would be if they witnessed a goddamn fish_ talk. _

Or maybe Tobiuo had been right about Shouyou being the only one who could understand him. Maybe, Natsu _hadn’t _heard and thought that her brother was just pointlessly yelling at his pet fish, like in the situation with Kiyoko. But to be honest, Natsu had seen him do _far_ more embarrassing things than that.

“Sushi...roll...? Me?”, Natsu’s small voice brought him back to reality, “Are you saying I’m fat?”

Wait,_ seriously?_

Shouyou raised his arm to point at the fish, but when he opened his mouth to speak, not even a single word came out. It was impossible to be prepared for _that_ kind of misunderstanding.

“I’m gonna tell mom,” Natsu said then, scrunched up her nose in a way only a small child could, and stomped out of the room, making way more noise than a petite seven-year-old should.

“Wait, no! Natsu, I’ve got the melon gummies in my bag, just- _arrrgh!”,_ Shouyou called after her, but whenever Natsu was really, truly mad at him, which happened every once in a blue moon, there was no point in trying to talk her out of it. This time, not even the sweets would come to his aid.

“See, this is what I meant about you being a dumbass,” Tobiuo concluded, utterly failing at reading the atmosphere, as Shouyou walked off to the nearest wall to bash his head against it.

“Oh, shut up, will you,” Shouyou answered with a groan, the headache from after he woke up returning. Anyone, who had _ever_ told him that fishing or keeping fish as pets was a boring hobby, hadn’t been in his shoes yet. Little siblings were one thing, but they would never know how exhausting it was to have a snarky, socially inept fish as a roommate..._and_ a little sibling. A deadly combination. But Shouyou wouldn’t be Shouyou if he allowed himself to step back from a challenge.

Maybe this was the beginning of an unconventional, fucked-up friendship. Or maybe he was about to plunge into a pit of madness after all. Only time could tell. Until then, he would just have to keep on swimming.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally going to be a longer fic but I'm shit at writing anything above 10k so it's gonna have a more open ending. But it doesn't make sense either way xD I just wanted fish!Kageyama to exist in a fic.


End file.
